High School Drama Club Musical Runs April 12-14
by Bailey Gabrielle – “Anything Goes” cast members at Marshfield High School completed a six-day workshop with Theatre Ruminate’s Lindsay Kujawa.
“[The residency focused] on character development with a bit of script analysis in order to help the students dig deeper into their roles and understand theatre at a different level.” said Kujawa, who holds a degree from UW-Green Bay in theatre performance and education.
[This workshop received partial funding from the Marshfield Area Community Foundation through the Greg and Sally Rindfleisch Performing Arts Fund.]
Each day, students explored a different aspect of performance including script analysis, movement on stage, character objectives, tactics, and song and choreography analysis.
“Anything Goes” follows Billy Crocker, a love struck stockbroker, as he stows away aboard the SS American.
Emma Michalek, who will play Chastity, one of Reno Sweeney’s Angels, said, “She made everyone seem super important. Some of the ensemble doesn’t have names and they all have backstories too. Everyone has their own story, but [Anything Goes] is just this one story that everyone is seeing about Reno.”
Kujawa also was available to help students in one-on-one sessions during their study hall or lunch periods.
“In the one-on-one sessions we were able to spend a lot more time doing the inside out work, getting the psychology of the character, and also diving into the scene analysis, looking at the specifics in the scene and focusing on the character’s motivations and spending a lot of time digging in to the subtext behind what is going on, “ said Kujawa.
Students created their own version of the characters they will play in the production.
“With Lindsay I focused on… all these things in the back story that the script won’t tell you, but you have to dig deeper and create your own Billy Crocker,” said Tyler Meyer, who will play Billy Crocker, the lovestruck stockbroker. “Even though Reno Sweeney and Billy Crocker are seen as iconic characters that seem like they can only be played one way, you can create your own character and make it unique to you.”
Brandon Koran, senior at MHS, said, “It was a gamechanger. I never really thought about my characters as individual people. I play two characters, Fred Dunbar and a passenger, but with Lindsay I was actually able to create a very vibrant backstory for both of them.”
Students were instructed to imagine how their character would walk and make gestures.
“I’m very awkward, I can’t move my body because I don’t know how,” said Talya Bolandar, who will play Charity, one of Reno Sweeney’s Angels. “[During one-on-one sessions with Lindsay,] we went over how to strut and how to actually move my hips so that I’m flirtatious like the angel I’m supposed to be. She turned on some Legally Blonde and we strutted across the stage for 45 minutes. It was really cool, I can feel myself doing it in the hallway now.”
Students also studied how to bring their character into choreographed scenes.
“It doesn’t have to be perfect, because if you think about it, the characters certainly aren’t perfect. Their dancing should somehow reflect that,” said Blake Zimmerman, sailor. “It should obviously be choreographed, but if we want to hold this illusion that a musical gives, then you’ve gotta almost make it seem as though everyone just broke out into spontaneous dance.”
Kujawa also challenged students to try not to play their character the exact same way every time they rehearsed or performed.
Meyer said, “Each night you should be reacting to how you feel and to how others are reacting on stage so each experience for the audience, if they see it multiple times, can be slightly different.”
Students have been rehearsing “Anything Goes” since January. Kujawa’s residency challenged the actors to think beyond what they have been rehearsing every night after school for past few months.
Tyler Nanstad, wealthy Englishman Evelyn Oakleigh, said, “I think it’s really amazing watching to see what’s happening to the whole cast when something that has felt kind of stagnant for a while is completely brought to life by Lindsay. We’ve learned that energy can really build, and how we can really make that into our own.”
Michalek said, “I feel less like myself just acting. I feel like this character that I’ve created now. I feel like I’m not in the real world, I actually feel like I’m on a ship now.”
“Anything Goes” runs from April 12-14 at 7:30 p.m. each night. Tickets can be purchased at the MHS main office or on showtix4u.com. Tickets are $8 for students and seniors and $10 for adults.
